Recipes and more...

Chocolate Cupcakes with Madagascan Vanilla Butter Cream

There is something fundamental about baking chocolate cupcakes with a Madagascan vanilla butter cream. It is the most delicious combination and a standard for any house hold baker. The creamy Madagascan vanilla butter cream is the perfect addition to the rick chocolate cake base.

Here is how to make these delicious cupcakes:

For the Cupcakes;

60g Cocoa Powder (I like to use over 70% cocoa solids)

200g Butter (at room temperature)

200g Caster Sugar

140g Plain Flour

4 Free Range Organic Eggs

1 ½ tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

For the Butter Cream;

500g Icing Sugar

250g Unsalted Butter (at room temperature)

1 ½ tsp Pure Madagascan Vanilla Extract

4 tsp Milk

Blue Food Colouring Gel

Method;

Set your oven to 180C and line a cupcake baking tray with paper cupcake liners.

In a clean dry bowl add your butter and beat continuously for 5 minutes until the colour changes from a yellow colour to a pale cream colour.

Add your sugar and beat again until the texture becomes light and fluffy.

Add your eggs one at a time, ensuring that all of your egg has been taken up by the mixture before the next addition of egg.

Once all of your eggs have been added, in a separate bowl add your flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, stir with a spoon.

Now, add your dry ingredients to the wet mixture 1/3 at a time.

Once all of your ingredients have been mixed together, spoon your cupcake batter into the paper cupcake liners and place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes.

Once the cupcakes spring back to the touch or you can insert a skewer into the centre of the cupcake and remove it clean, then your cupcakes are ready to remove them from the oven.

Leave your cupcakes to stand in their baking tray for 5 minutes.

Once this 5 minutes is up, remove your cupcakes from the baking tin and leave to stand until completely cold on a wire cooling rack.

Whilst your cupcakes are cooling, this will provide you with enough time to make your butter cream icing,

In a large clean, dry bowl add your butter at room temperature and beat as you did with the cupcakes, for 5 minutes until the colour change appears.

Add in your icing sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, ensuring that each tablespoon has been well incorporated before the next. DO NOT use an electric mixer at this time, as you do not want your icing sugar to end up everywhere other than in your butter cream.

Once all of your icing sugar has been added, the texture may appear and feel a little tough, add in your Madagascan vanilla extract and your milk and beat until smooth.

Add in your blue food colouring gel, I prefer to use gel food colouring as it will not alter the consistency of the butter cream. Add in as much gel food colouring as you would like, to achieve the colour that you desire.

Pipe your butter cream onto your now cold cupcakes and serve!

These delightful treats go down well as a dessert or even a treat for tea.